W.Pa. gas prices continue to decline
Notice: Undefined variable: article_ad_placement3 in /usr/web/cs-washington.ogdennews.com/wp-content/themes/News_Core_2023_WashCluster/single.php on line 128
PITTSBURGH – Western Pennsylvania gas prices dipped for the sixth straight week to about $3.62 a gallon, according to AAA East Central’s Fuel Gauge report released Tuesday. This represents a 6-cent drop over last week.
AAA East Central surveys more than 513 Western Pennsylvania gas stations on a weekly basis. It said the cheapest unleaded regular gas was $3.45 in Erie and the most expensive was $3.73 in Beaver.
In the Washington area, the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular was $3.640.
This week the average price of $3.615 in the area undercut the previous week’s average of $3.676 by 6 cents, but was nearly 3 cents higher than the $3.586 average for the week of Aug. 13, 2013.
The average price for regular unleaded gas across Pennsylvania was $3.55.
According to AAA, the national average price for regular unleaded gasoline continued its downward trend despite high-profile conflicts in overseas oil producing countries and declining domestic refinery production. Tuesday’s price was $3.47 per gallon, which is about 2 cents less than one week ago, 15 cents less than one month ago and 7 cents less than the same date last year.
The falling national average is largely mirrored at the state level, where drivers in all but a handful of states are paying less at the pump over the last few weeks. Consumers in Hawaii ($4.32), Alaska ($4.10) and California ($3.91) continue to pay the highest prices per gallon.
Last week, President Obama announced that United States would begin airstrikes in Iraq in response to the continuing escalation of violence by the group known as ISIL. Iraq is the world’s seventh-largest oil producer and a disruption in production could impact the global supply. Tensions between Russia and Ukraine, and the situation Libya are being monitored but have not resulted in a disruption to supply.
Oil prices, meanwhile, continue to trade near multi-month lows. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil settled 43 cents higher at $98.08 per barrel at the close of formal trading Monday.